Hong Kong: one of the most crowded cities in the world Hong Kong is currently carrying out its first mental health survey.
It is expected to take three years but preliminary findings show the region's mental health services to be inadequate.
Only 1% of Hong Kong residents are currently receiving mental health treatment but the need is thought to be far higher.
In 1997 Hong Kong transferred from a British colony to a region with special status under Chinese rule.
Caught between the traditions of Chinese culture and the westernising influence of 137 years of British rule, the city has experienced dramatic political, social and economic change leaving some of its most vulnerable citizens out in the cold.
Linda Lam is Chief Editor of the Hong Kong Journal of Psychiatry. She believes that the provision of mental health services in the city is way below need.
"We don't have figures for the prevalence of most psychological disorders in Hong Kong but like most developed cities there are estimates that anxiety and depressive disorders would be over 10%.
"If we project this to Hong Kong then our mental health needs would be tremendous."
It is widely assumed among mental health professionals in Hong Kong that mental illness is vastly under-diagnosed.
Strong religious beliefs lead people to see mental illness as a curse One of the main reasons for this is rooted in traditional Chinese beliefs and the idea of reincarnation.
In China, it is widely believed that misfortune in this life is the result of misdeeds in the past.
Professor Daniel Wong, a practicing therapist and social scientist at the City University of Hong Kong, explains this attitude to mental illness.
"In Hong Kong when you mention anything about mental illness people immediately think that this person is dangerous, violent and is going to kill someone.
"The general public is quite scared of people with mental illness and does not want to mix with them."
Discrimination against those with mental illness is a world-wide problem but in Hong Kong the situation is particularly acute.
'Wendy' Living with mental illness“I even thought of committing suicide because the weight of life was unbearable.”
Roy Chen is a 45-year-old mature student at Hong Kong University and has experienced this first hand.
Eight years ago, he was working on the reservations desk of an airline when his colleagues discovered he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
"They started to have strange feelings about me, they didn't want to take the elevator with me, instead they just to
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